My kids have played it and love it, but they play games like this often (they're 5 and 3 and they can play the simpler levels; they're used to complex games though and my 5yo is better at games than me, lol!). Myself, I'm stuck at level 32 but I'm still having fun trying to beat it :). DH has become an addict, lol!

This game is NOT a game for Children (downloaded if for my GD's). Reason being that some levels you have to match 3 or more times to get rid of the blue square. It gets old real fast when you have to restart the level. I don't know about other Children but..... my GD's would get ticked off & bored having to restart levels (both have tempers & ADHD) and would lose interest in the game & move on..

Dh and I really enjoyed this game. It got more challenging as you played it and I thought it was interesting to play. My kids haven't tried yet but I think they would enjoy it as well.

>Mapsking

Your "nitpickery" post was hilarious, but you really should put your name on the line below the closing...

>Skye-hook

You're right, it doesn't say "reviews" at the top - it says "comments". As in, people's opinions. Notice that I'm not trying to get everyone else to stop saying that they liked it.

Well, since you brought it up Lockett and Phil, I just thought I'd clear the air a bit...

Of course, there were the errors with the scoring (5 out of 5), error message x2 that you mentioned, and "succeeded", but don't forget the Still on the second line should have two spaces before the word, there should be a space after the word developers (3rd line), needs a comma after the following closing parenthesis, a bistro is actually defined as "1: a small or unpretentious restaurant; 2 a: a small bar or tavern b: nightclub", space before "This" should have 2 spaces, comma should be inside bistro quotation, "fries" should be capitalized here, there should be a space before the parenthesis on how, to save time, every period should have two spaces behind it, some don't even have one. To be grammatically correct, the following sentence should not begin with the word "That", as it is only referencing an item in a previous sentence, the following "that" should be omitted as well.

Considering this is only from the first paragraph, I don't feel like nitpicking and correcting all of the errors, as there were four more paragraphs. See the pointlessness of everything like this Phil? The message is clear, and perfection is not a necessity. We understand Lockett did not like the game, and that is fine. We don't need to waste everyone's time and nitpick and complain about everything.

Other than that, the game seems to have locked up on me the first time I tried it, however, the second time it worked fine. I did notice, some people earlier complained about the hints, which can be very easily turned off in the options menu. Thanks GGAOTD and Alawar Entertainment for the offering.

Thanks, Mapsking

Peeps having trouble above- the reason it's not working after you get it's setup run, is probably what I had when 1st tried it- I had another game running at same time. I bet you had a program running that was using some of same resources it needed. I ran setup again and it works fine.
Above, of course I meant " a lot" not I lot. lol Giggle. :) Drrrrrr :)

THANK YOU Alawar & GOTD team!!! Even little kids can play this 1 on endless mode, til they drop over! I myself played it in endless mode t& it was nice not to have rush or kill anything. lol My grand will love it!

LOVE FREE GAMES! I'm 1 who couldn't otherwise afford to buy most games, being partially handicapped.
BOO complainers! Go away! Ya know, if you could manage to write a negative report on agame in a decent way, without insults & snotty attitude, maybe we'd not dislike it so much. Try doing it like a true reporter!
And btw, these games are NOT here so that we'll "REVIEW" them! Can you read? Do you see above any place that says please post your review??? We are so tired of it. Complainers are NOT reviewers, they are just complainers. I'd say they must be terribly spoiled, in which case they sure don't need or deserve anything free! And we don't deserve to have to read the whining! Then we feel like venting & whining about the whiners!

There's only 2 we need reviews from- whiterabbit & bladed_thoth! The rest of those who say they downloaded it to review it are on a huge ego trip!

These games are only here to be given free, to enjoy! They are trying to be nice, NOT to get reviews from amateurs! You are only fooling yourself. Anyone but the afore-mentioned, go apply for a reviewer job or as a beta tester, & leave these great games alone!
IF ya can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all!

Thanks again Alawar & GOTD team! Most of us appreciate you all I LOT! :)

This is a very cute match 3 game, but is more appealing to children. For a really great match 3 geared for older kids and adults, The Treasures Of Montezuma (also by Alawar) is AWESOME. I never thought I'd find these kind of game interesting, but I've wasted more time playing that one!

~~Stephen (or others with this problem - if any)

Well here is what I've done with no success. I first checked my C:\Program Files\Alawar folder to make sure that everything that I still had in there still functioned normally, and it does. I then installed "Bistro" to a few different directories such as my flash drive, my 2GB SD card, and my 500GB external hard drive and I still get the same results. The only thing that I do the same is allow the shortcut to run off of my desktop. In one instance I didn't use the shortcuts in the start menu or on the desktop, instead I clicked on the application file that was installed to my 2GB SD card and I still got the same results. I also disabled all security software that was running and got nothing. WEIRD. If anything I got a superfast way to shut down my computer. I'll just rename the shortcut icon "super shutdown" and use it from now on - LOL JK!!! I highly doubt that would be to beneficial to my machine. Anyway thank you for your help. It's good to have very knowledgeable people around who aren't such smarta**es!! No offense to anyone!! Thanks again to Alawar and GAOTD for offering this and all titles. I just couldn't use this one today. I'll be back tomorrow.

Oh and in case you (Whiterabbit) are wondering, I only use my 500GB external hard drive for super storage only as I am not only self-employed and store business records and blueprints on it, but I am a photographer also and I store my thousands of photos on it. I am seriously considering using it for back up though as I don't feel like playing with fire anymore. LOL. I did find a 1.5 TB (terabyte) external hard drive that I'm interested in.

For those of you who are not familiar with a "Terabyte" Google it.

Sorry for the "ranting" but this giveaway is almost over anyway.

Goodnight all!!!

mev1296

I agree about the whining -- it needs to stop. Free games are great.

I appreciate that WR posts a comprehensive review every day. I've been trying to post a mini-review of my own since I discovered this site a couple of weeks ago to help supplement what he posts. For me, the reviews offer a good indication of whether I should give a game I don't like a chance, or if I should go with my gut instinct. I don't mind the griping as long as it's reasonable. Often, it's from people who refuse to download the game and try it, though.

And to Lockett, who claims to hate the game, but who has made half a dozen posts on this thread -- seriously, dude, get a life. If you didn't like it, fine. Say that once and move on. You don't need to keep trolling the thread.

>QT

"No, I'm not being sarcastic."

Oh. The way that you kept emphasizing the "FREE GAMES" like some spam email suggested that you were satirizing people like yourself. Text is a notoriously difficult medium for conveying subtlety.

Oh, and I'm not complaining about the site giving us "FREE GAMES(don't you just love ALLCAPS?)" - I'm complaining about the games themselves. I thought that comments were invented so that people could voice their opinions.

#20 - No, I'm not being sarcastic. I love the free games that I CHOOSE to download ("I CHOOSE" being the key phrase here). If something is not my fancy, then I move on until tomorrows FREE GAME! People, there are better things to complain about than someone giving you FREE COMPUTER GAMES!

My daughter likes the game, especially the "unlimited play" mode, but LOADIN..(1...2...3...4....5...6...7....8....9....10...11...12)...G...

and you have to activate it for EACH user on the computer.

Whoops, I'm sorry, I also screwed up my editing with the "five out of five" score. That was meant to be five out of ten. Please forgive me, I was tired and screwed up a lot.

I still think that it's garbage, though.

>Ernie LaVallee

"Then you go on to score it “five out of five (eight for graphics, four for gameplay, six for sound, and two for theme)”. Your logic and math skills are as laudable as your soulmate Phil’s hilariously bad poetry."

2+4+6+8 divided by 4 equals an average of 5. In case you didn't notice, most review scores are based on averages.

Hey, thanks Belgian Dude, some of those games are quite good for free. that link is now in my directory. :)

Sorry for the mistake earlier. I'm surprised that so much fuss was made of such a simple oversight though, lol. I actually meant to say:

"considering what was said about the mini memory games earlier by Lockett, I would need to amend my score to a seven".

I was in between installing the games I received this morning so was distracted. It's a pity that we can't edit out posts as I always end up with lots of errors simply because I don't have time to proof the review as I feel it is much more important to get a review posted as early as possible than to ensure that it is word perfect.

As for Phils uncalled for remark, there is nothing pleasant about being in an opoid haze all the time. :(

======================================================================
======
Sorry mev1296 I really can't figure what could be causing the re-booting problem; although have you tried installing the game to another place on your computer instead of to the default location?

If you’re not sure how to do this, once you've accepted the game licence the next window gives you the opportunity to select your own install path by clicking on browse. This brings up the windows browser. I wouldn't place it directly into the root folder though (that's the C: drive). If you don't have a games folder perhaps create one. This can be done easily by typing it into the path that’s already displayed. Just delete the program files entry and replace it with games. When you click on next, the games folder will automatically be created for you.

Other than that I cannot think of anything elseexcept..... If you have two drives then perhaps try installing it onto that one. Hmmm, another thought just occured to me. Right Click on the Bistro Stars icon and select properties; it should open to the shortcuts tab, but if not, click on the shortcuts tab. Look at the target window. If you allowed the game to be installed to the default position it should read like this:

“C:\Program Files\Alawar\Bistro Stars”

From your description of what is happening it seems like the target is somehow pointing to the shut down program, but that’s only a guess. If it doesn’t say the above, and you definitely allowed the game to be installed into the default position then either copy the above path including the speech marks (“....") or type the path over what is already there.

I hope this is of some help.

WR

I don't like this game. But my 4 year old grandson likes it ,and can play it!So it stays . Install was a little rough , act. went good after it finally installed. Thanks for the freebie.

Thanks for another free game from ALAWAR! As always, I had no problems with the download or playing this ALAWAR game on Windows XP. I play these games myself - my brother-in-law downloads to play with his kids = matching, memory and learning games using the computer. I know that this game looks/plays like many others, but the 'food' aspect and easy mutli-matching makes it fun for all ages, even my mother-in-law! For the persons' that feel this is 'just-like-the-other-games', do not download this game ... a new one will be waiting for you tomorrow! Thanks!

Lockett: You say this game is boring, annoying and just plain stupid. Then you go on to score it "five out of five (eight for graphics, four for gameplay, six for sound, and two for theme)". Your logic and math skills are as laudable as your soulmate Phil's hilariously bad poetry. No wonder you two are so smitten with each other.
Thank you GOTD and Alawar for yet another enjoyable way to pass some free time!

This just won't work for me.
I downloaded it this morning and left my comments about the problems with the graphics I was having, came back later and downloaded it again ~twice~ and it's doing the same thing. I just get squiggles, a few burgers and cokes, but not enough to make this usable.
Oh well. Next time. Thanks.

>Belgian Dude

Don't forget GameHippo. It has a bigger selection, anyway.

>Flash

"Nice game with funny 'eating sounds'"

You actually like those?

I check out the game site and the software site every day. And while I'm waiting for the download/install processes to take place, I read the reviews. What I truly don't get is the people who complain day after day after day about the FREE stuff not being up to their standards. What is up with that? If you like it, download. If someone is having a problem and you can be constructive and help them out, do so by all means. But why gripe if you don't like it? And, by the way, if the site is so awful and you aren't happy with most of the FREE offerings, why do you come back day after day?

This is the first time I have EVER had a problem with a game from GGOTD. Got audio but no video, I had to uninstall it. Too bad, it looked interesting.

LOVE IT LOVE IT THANKS GGOD

~Belgian Dude

Thanks for that website. These games are really good. Especially the one that you linked to. Alot of them will help my son learn his kindergarten stuff and ust the computer also.

Thanks Again

mev1296

Hi, I downloaded and tried this game. It was alright, I'd give it an 80/100. It was like all other match three games I have played so I was interested in playing past like level 6 or so. The graphics were ok, somewhat corny. I was wondering though, there is one food where I can't tell what it is, a hotdog taco?
The biggest problem with the game is I couldn't find clear directions on what I was actually supposed to do. I didn't understand what the foods on the left meant and how I was supposed to complete each goal. A clear set of written out in list form directions are necessary or a tutorial game would be helpful. Also, a little prompt came up like every five seconds telling me a move. I think it would be better if you could click a help button instead, I found them annoying when they just popped up.
I guess I wouldn't recommend this to anyone because it's like all other match three games. As someone who makes flash games I can appreciate the work that has gone into it, but the end result isn't that entertaining. I'd be really upset if I had paid for this.
Suggestions to improve the game: each level could have a different restraunt with a different nationality and foods that country is famous for. Perhaps the points you earn from playing each round could be good for buying things to improve a restraunt, not related to matching three. Another idea is having the people that pop up at the bottom order a food, and you have to fill the order by matching three. My other idea is you compete against the computer, and it would be like competing against another chef for an award so that more people will want to go to your bistro.
Hope what I said was helpful :)

Nice game with funny "eating sounds"
I am a fan of 3 in a row games so I can use this one.
Thanks again for another alawar keeper

mev1296,

Instead of forcing your system to reboot by keep clicking on this 'game', and thanking Alawar for it, why not surf to

http://www.caiman.us/scripts/fw/flineup.html

and download one of the 90 odd freeware line-up games. There must at least be one on there that would take the fancy of your son.

E.g.:http://www.caiman.us/scripts/fw/f926.html

I also tried to download the demo from alawars site and still have the same problem...
My computers are also operating on Windows XP SP2

i downloaded game ,, but i cant get anything but the demo ,, please help

Downloaded and tried to play then my computer screen turned blue and gave me an error message. Had to turn off and on again. Tried to play again and got the same problem.
Tried it on a different computer and still happened.
Somehting wrong with download...

I forgot to mention that I am running Windows XP SP2 on the machine that is having trouble with this game. I haven't installed it on my Windows Vista machine yet but I will if I can get this "bug" worked out.

mev1296

HHHEEEEELLLLLPPPPPPPP

As with all other Alawar games, this game installed and activated perfectly...BUT when I click on the icon to start the game my computer instantly REBOOTS without warning. I thought it might have been a fluke so I tried clicking on the icon to start the game again after my machine rebooted,(actually 4 more times lol:) ) and the same thing INSTANT REBOOT. I uninstalled it, installed the demo from Alawar's website and tried again. Still INSTANT REBOOT. I tried running in 256 colors and 640x480 resolution by using the compatibility tab in the properties menu and guess what? INSTANT REBOOT. Does any one know why this happens? This has never happened to me before and I have ALOT of Alawar games.

If I could get this game to run it would be perfect for my son who is in kindergarten. He is learning how to match items, shapes, and colors and this is PERFECT for him.

Thanks again Alawar and GAOTD! Even though this game doesn't work for me yet, you people rock. I will continue to work on the problem and let ya'll know what I find.

If anyone knows anything about this, please post before the end of the giveaway period.

mev1296

I downloaded this game (I almost didn't because of the bad comments) and played it for quite a while. It is fun for me and my grandsons will be able to play it as well. I am grateful for these free games! Keep up the good work GGOTD!

This game worked much better on my Vista Ultimate than yesterday's game. Far better than this site was behaving until just a little while ago! I was getting a lot of "crashed" messages!

It's not a brain burner but sometimes I just need a relaxing game that doesn't make me think.

However, I did have a thought as I was installing it. A lot of people complain that the activate games but when they play them it says 69 minute trial version. I think I understand what is happening. They are probably letting the default "Play game" options stay when they complete the activation. That option always shows as 60 minute trial. If you go to the shortcuts created and start the game manually, it is the full version.

Moral - Never start the game at the end of installation. Always terminate the installation and then try the shortcut manually!

That may stop a lot of the Trial/Full complaints.

Downloades and installed with no problems (XPsp2). Boo hoo on the nay sayers who don't like match3 and their clones! I love them and this is a keeper:) Options menu allows adjustmaent of music, volume,cursor and windowed. You can also turn off hints. Good contrast in colors for my low vision. Who says you can't play with your food!!

Thank you Alawar amd GGOTD!!!

>Secularsage

"Man, you guys have too much free time, to have these reviews up so early in the morning."

It's only early in the morning to you - it's the internet, so people here live in more than one time zone. In mine, it's six, hardly early at all.

>QT

You're being sarcastic, right?

Very nice game. Colourful, easy to see, cheery unobtrusive music, and choice of playing without timer. I love match 3 games and can always use another one. Many thanks.

I agree with the masses in saying that FREE GAMES ARE THE BOMB!
FREE... when does someone ever give you something for nothing...?
I am shocked at people who complain about FREE GAMES! Even more shocking are the people who complain EVERY DAY about FREE GAMES!
I love FREE GAMES, thanks GGAOTD for providing all of us with FREE GAMES.

Man, you guys have too much free time, to have these reviews up so early in the morning.

I actually liked this game, so here's my review:

Bistro Stars is a puzzle game in the vein of Bejeweled and other "match 3" puzzlers, but it's one with extremely high production values. The graphics are top notch, with hand drawn icons and smooth animation transitions. The presentation and pacing of the game are spot on as well -- Bistro Stars eases you in, but it quickly grows difficult the longer you play.

The idea of the game is that you're working in a restaurant and clearing orders as quickly as you can by moving food items into rows of 3, 4 or 5. One of the objectives is to clear every space on the board at least once -- the faster you can do this, the higher the points you earn. Though the game starts off as a simple matcher, it quickly adds in things like locked pieces and bonus pieces to increase the challenge and the strategy.

What makes Bistro Stars stand out from its brethren is its frenetic action -- this is a game where it's very easy to rack up combos and create big chains. The game rewards you for this by letting you know whenever you score "big points" or a "mega combo" with friendly words flashing across the middle of the screen. The play field varies with each level, so you're not always stuck in the standard grid, either; some of the fields are short and wide, while others are long and tall. It might not sound like much of a change, but it makes a big difference in the way the blocks fall as they're cleared.

Bistro Stars also includes side games where you're told you are attending a "fast food convention" and get to play some minigames. The only one I saw involved a memory placement game where you were shown an image and told to recreate it. It was pretty easy, but I enjoyed the variety of trying it out for a few rounds. In the main game, these minigames are entirely optional, but they're a nice change of pace.

The music and sound design are adequate; neither is offensive to sensibilities, but neither stands out, either.

This is a great little game to download and kill an hour with. Whether or not it's worth $19.95 depends on your enjoyment of what is getting to be a tired and crowded subgenre of match 3 puzzlers. But it's definitely a great game for a free download. Enjoy it while you can!

Oh, and I misspelled "succeeded".

>Phil

"I found Lockett’s review to be more in depth, and professionally edited."

Professionally edited? You mean like when I screwed up my copy/paste editing style and wrote "error message" twice?

I downloaded this game twice, once from the link and once from the mirror link, and it isn't working. The graphics are corrupted. It's so blurred I can't see the hamburgers or read any of the lettering.
Oh, well. I might try again later. :(

ROFLMAO "21 minute and sixteen second" review. I wonder which part of the looking glass the white bunny is playing in? He goes on to comment on Lockett's statement about how he's amending his original "6 out of ten" score to "6 out of ten". I found Lockett's review to be more in depth, and professionally edited. I might even download this game and play it with hopes it will put me in the same state of mind (Which I miss from the early 70's)that the bunny is in. Thanks GGAOTD for this awe inspiring release. PS Now Bernie, behave or no more meds for you.

I wanted to thank you GGAOD for yesterdays game as I didn't have a chance to yesterday. I love breakout games,but I appreciate all the games you bring us and I especially like Alawar games, so please ignore all the whiners who complain all the time. How about some hidden object games? Keep up the great work and thanks for the oppurtunity you give us to get good games because some of us could never afford to buy them.I appreciate every one of them even if I don't like the one that's offered sometimes.

>Whiterabbit/Stephen/whoever you are

Thank you very much. I'm confused, though - you say that you "must amend" your score, but I don't see the original. Are you talking about when it was first offered?

Also, I complained about the hints, when, according to you, they can be turned off. That is because I was still writing my review when you posted yours.

I still think that they're annoying, though.

Don't kick the gift horse in the nuts, guys... Alawar doesn't have to keep doing this.

Having said that, I much preferred The Treasures of Montezuma from a few weeks back. I'd probably pay money for that one... if I HAD to, that is. ;)

Thanks for the review Lockett, especially for clearing up my omissions. I never saw the mini games in between levels partly because I only tried a little of each of the modes available (due to my games package arriving). The fact that they have added a mini game of sorts must add a little more interest to the game, although I'm only popping in to see how things are going in between loading up my new games. (The LotR:Battle for Middle Earth II RTS game I got was a little disappointing, but the other three - Need for Speed Carbon, Company of Heroes and Spaceforce:Rough Universe made up for it. I don't usually buy these types of games any more as I'm commited to FPS games mainly, although the odd RPG such as Oblivion and Simulation games such as Silent Hunter 4 are okay to break up the explosions and killing, lol).

In the light of Locketts review above I must amend my overall score to 6 out of 10. Again thank you Lockett for a most interesting and erudite review, which was a welcome change :D no sarcasm intended.

WR

can we please get away from the alawar games for awhile?? most of them are good to start with but get boring real fast